Tropical Storm — Central Interior Cumberland, Maine

2020-08-04 · Central Interior Cumberland, Maine

Event narrative

Tropical Storm Isaias brought moderate impacts to Cumberland County due wind gusts up to 45 mph. Numerous snapped and uprooted trees along with broken branches caused downed power lines through the county. Cumberland County was one of the harder hit areas for power outages with 28,000 customers losing power, with a restoration time for most outages within 24 hours. A number of boats were grounded or sunk on Sebago lake, with a unverified home weather station reported wind gust on the lakefront of 66 mph. Hundreds of trees were uprooted on the northern end of the lake. No flooding was reported.

Wider weather episode

Tropical Storm Isaias was the first tropical storm to impact Maine since 2011. The center of the storm tracked well west of the state, keeping all the heavy rain associated with the storm across New York. The primary impacts the storm brought to southwest Maine were gusty winds with widespread reports of wind gusts in the mid to upper 40s. Numerous trees and branches were brought down with the winds resulting in peak power outages around 125,000 customers. Additional boat damage was also reported on some area lakes due to the strong winds. Overall storm impacts were brief with a period of gusty winds from the south to southeast on the evening of August 4th causing most of the damage. No coastal flooding was reported with the storm as the minor storm surge with this event of around 1 foot coincided at low tide.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 918492. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.